| SHOCK VACANCY — Justice RUSSELL BROWN's departure from the Supreme Court, effective Monday, sent a jolt of adrenaline through Canada's judicial community. The official line says Brown "decided to retire" after an eight-year run on the top court — and 17 1/2 years shy of his mandatory retirement at the age of 75. Brown was facing a Canadian Judicial Council review of his conduct in relation to a reported altercation at an Arizona resort hotel on Jan. 28. The details of Brown's apparent physical confrontation with a 31-year-old ex-U.S. Marine were eye-popping. The military vet filed the complaint with the CJC. Brown had been on leave since Jan. 31. His resignation ends the review. — Filling a vacancy: Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU could make history with his sixth Supreme Court appointment. If Trudeau appoints a woman to fill the sudden gap on the bench, male judges will hold a minority of chairs for the first time in Canadian history. Playbook got on the horn with GERARD KENNEDY — not that one, this one. Kennedy is a law professor who's moving this summer from the University of Manitoba to the University of Alberta. He indulged our penchant for speculation. What happens next? The prime minister will presumably convene a committee of — to use the infamous phrase these days — ‘eminent Canadians’, various stakeholders in the legal community to solicit and review applications. The committee for the first several appointments was chaired by Ken Campbell. The last committee was chaired by Wade MacLauchlan. Probably a former politician who nonetheless is tremendously respected in legal circles. MacLauchlan was a former law dean. Campbell was a former justice minister. How important is bilingualism? The government has been absolutely insistent that the candidates must be bilingual. There's probably some wiggle room in what counts as bilingualism. Does the next judge have to come from the west? There is clearly an expectation, and people will go nuts if the candidate is not from the west. Think about that. You're looking for a functionally bilingual person from the four western provinces. You're starting to seriously limit the number of potential contenders. I'm not saying it's not appropriate. But you are. What is the court missing with Brown's departure? Justice Brown's background was as a private law scholar, particularly in torts. On the court, he had definitely come to be an expert really in a lot of different areas. He wrote a lot of administrative law, constitutional law, and a surprisingly large amount of criminal procedure. They might be looking for a former academic. They might be looking for a private law scholar. It would be great to have someone with more criminal law background, because with the possible exception of Justice Martin, none of the eight has a lot of criminal law background. What might deter applicants? There will likely be some people who meet the legal and professional qualifications, and have the characteristics or experience that you'd want to have, and still might not want to go to Ottawa. — Names, names, names: Who might apply for the job? Kennedy workshopped some ideas based on the remaining pool of candidates. GLENN D. JOYAL is the chief justice of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba. MARIANNE RIVOALEN was recently named chief of justice of Manitoba's Court of Appeal. Another Manitoban, GERALD HECKMAN, was appointed this month to the Federal Court of Appeal. DWIGHT NEWMAN is a University of Saskatchewan law prof (and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous rights in constitutional and international law). His province hasn't had a judge on the court since the 1970s. RITA KHULLAR is chief justice of Alberta, the courts of appeal in both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. When Khullar submitted a questionnaire to the federal application process published in 2017, she claimed no bilingualism — but that was seven years ago. JANE FAGNAN and APRIL GROSSE sit on Alberta's Court of Appeal. — Stakeholder input: The Black Class Action Secretariat behind a Federal Court lawsuit seeking "long-term solutions to permanently address systemic racism and discrimination in the Public Service of Canada" has an idea: appoint a Black justice. — Place your bets now: Who do you think will get the call? Drop us a line.
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